According to a new study from the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, sugary soft drinks served only once a day are associated with a higher risk of cardiovascular disease.
That’s the conclusion of a new study published Wednesday in the Journal of the American Heart Association.
For the study, the researchers cataloged data from 106,000 women who filled out food questionnaires. The survey included information on how often they drank sweetened beverages, sugary soft drinks, and sweet mineral water.
Study participants, whose average age was 52 years, had no heart disease, stroke, or diabetes at the time they participated in this study.
However, many began to show signs of the disease as a secondary disease that lasted for more than two decades.
The researchers concluded that consuming one or more sugary beverages per day was associated with an increased risk of heart disease, stroke, and diabetes compared to women who did not consume any of these sugary beverages or rarely did so.
Some drinks are worse than others
Those who consumed fruit drinks with added sugar on a daily basis had a higher risk of cardiovascular disease than those who consumed no sugary drinks at all.
According to the study, heavy drinkers of sodas also behaved differently from non-drinkers with a higher risk of heart disease, stroke, and diabetes.
The American Heart Association suggests women restrict their sugar intake to no more than 100 calories (25 grams) a day. Men should not have more than 150 calories or 38 grams, and women should not consume too much sugar.
Sugar can narrow the arteries
We suspect sugar may boost the risk of cardiovascular disease in various ways, said study author Cheryl Anderson, Who is a professor of family and public health at the University of California San Diego.
She pointed out that excessive sugar has been linked to high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and obesity.
She recorded that extreme sugar is linked with inflammation, insulin resistance, and type 2 diabetes.
These ailments are linked to the growth of atherosclerosis, which is the reduction of arteries that forms the basis for most cardiovascular disease.
For the study, the researchers defined cardiovascular disease as heart disease, stroke, diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol. These diseases are related to the narrowing of the arteries that form the basis of most cardiovascular diseases.
The women in the study were from the California Teachers Study, and the project began when the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine’s Center for the Study of Women’s Health completed a study of more than 1,000 teachers in California.
The study led to more than 200 scientific publications over the past 25 years. Since then a large longitudinal study has followed the same women who first participated in the study over 25 years ago and found no significant difference in risk of heart disease or cardiovascular disease between the two groups.
A key strength of this study is that the observation period is longer than 20 years, “said lead author Dr. Bob L. Schmitt, an associate professor of epidemiology at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine.
In the study, which was linked to cardiovascular disease, researchers extracted survey data from women from the California Teacher Study.
The women were followed for 25 years after they experienced a cardiovascular event, died, moved to California, or stopped sending questionnaires.
One limitation of the study is that it was an observational study and therefore no direct link could be established between the drinks and the risk of cardiovascular disease in women.
He also praised the fact that, unlike other studies, the type of drink did not contribute to the risk during life.
Water is the best drink
A spokesman for the American Beverage Association said in a statement that the beverage industry supports the right of consumers to offer low-sugar options and provide them in advance.
If you want something sweet, making a fruit smoothie is a great way to add flavor without having to put up with certain negative health consequences.
To avoid sugary drinks, the AHA recommends reading nutritional information, looking for additives such as sucrose or maltose syrup.
Make sure portion sizes are not a full bottle so you don’t accidentally drink too much of it or too little of the right kind of sugar, Eckel said, followed by a healthy diet of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, and seeds.
In addition to water that can be slurped throughout the day, He also recommends water as an alternative to sugary drinks.
“Sugar-sweetened beverages have a small place in our dietary pattern” according to the American Heart Association and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
